Mrs. Pence’s New Job

It actually does not bother me that Karen Pence, a traditionalist Christian, is teaching art at a conservative Christian school in Springfield, Virginia that does not accept homosexual behavior by students or teachers (or parents, it seems). The Pences aren’t saying that all schools should hold these views, whereas those who are protesting Mrs. Pence for her new teaching post seem to suggest that no schools should be allowed with these views.

Via Scopes: “The school does not explicitly bar gay, lesbian or bisexual persons from teaching there, but rather states that homosexual sexual acts (as opposed to same-sex preferences) are considered unacceptable “moral misconduct.” … It is a matter of subjective personal opinion, rather than objective fact, whether the ban on teachers’ engaging in homosexual sexual acts is tantamount to a de facto ban on gay, lesbian and bisexual teachers.”

I disagree with the views of the Immanuel Christian School, but I wouldn’t want to live in a country that did not allow conservative Christians, Orthodox Jews and others to have schools that comport with their faith traditions.

More. Apparently, some who have no problem requiring religiously pro-life taxpayers to help foot the bill for abortions, or with forcing nuns to pay for abortifacients for their employees, are upset that Karen Pence is teaching at a school that’s not accepting of LGBT behavior while receiving secret service protection.

More. Columnist William McGurn writes in the Wall Street Journal:

Now look at the Immanuel Christian School. Those who run it know they and those who think like them are the big losers in America’s culture war. All they ask is to be allowed, within the confines of their community, to uphold 2,000 years of Christian teaching on marriage, sexuality and the human person. …

[But] it isn’t enough for the victors to win; the new sense of justice requires that those who still don’t agree must be compelled to violate their deepest beliefs, whether this means forcing the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide contraception or dragging a baker in Colorado through the courts until he agrees to make a cake celebrating “gender transition.”

Today’s militant secularists ironically resemble the worst caricatures of religious intolerance of early America.

10 Comments for “Mrs. Pence’s New Job”

  1. posted by Jorge on

    Wasn’t there someone who used to come here years ago who used to teach at a Catholic school before he had irreconcilable differences with it?

    Many Christian institutions have conservative moral standards. Some are blunt, some are delicate. Leaving aside the theological question, each has a disadvantage for would be gay teachers and students. One creates a lot of distress, one sets people up for feeling deceived or foolish. Both require a strong stomach in the end. One must know that.

    Why, then, do people (even gay people) turn to them again and again? It is because those institutions that apply moral standards and fall short are the only ones most people know that apply moral standards in a way that is sincere and promotes the common peace.

    • posted by JohnInCA on

      Why, then, do people (even gay people) turn to them again and again?

      Lacking evidence that it’s the same people that “turn to them again and again”, and not just new suckers that haven’t wizend to the con yet, I’m not sure this is a fair question.

  2. posted by Kosh iii on

    ” It is because those institutions that apply moral standards and fall short are the only ones most people know that apply moral standards in a way that is sincere and promotes the common peace.”
    Sounds like you are saying only the religious can know and share ethics? Let schools teach The 3 R’s and let the parents and temple/church/mosque teach morality/ethics.
    Guess you missed the “values” of those spoiled little brats at Covington Catholic HS.

    • posted by Jorge on

      Sounds like you are saying only the religious can know and share ethics?

      First, I am not talking about religious people, I am talking about religious institutions. Second, I am not making a statement about what is impossible vs. what is impossible. I can take up and teach boxing. I am making a statement about what is witnessed in the present time. I don’t box and I don’t teach boxing, so I can do nothing for someone who yearns to learn how to box.

      Let schools teach The 3 R’s and let the parents and temple/church/mosque teach morality/ethics.

      I find this way of thinking extremely abhorrent and dangerous. If you have children for half or more of their waking hours you’d better take some responsibility for their moral and ethical development. One of the reasons religious schools have a market is because the move away from character and civics has made public schools less safe and less accountable to teaching successfully.

      Guess you missed the “values” of those spoiled little brats at Covington Catholic HS.

      That’s story’s changing almost as fast as Buzzfeed’s big bombshell on Michael Cohen. All you need to know to conclude it’s a non-story is that it happened in front of the Supreme Court.

    • posted by Tom Scharbach on

      Guess you missed the “values” of those spoiled little brats at Covington Catholic HS.

      Staring Down the Smug Face of American Violence, an account of what it felt like to stare down the Covington Catholic teens.

  3. posted by Mike King & David "TJ" Bauler on

    I don’t really care where she works or volunteers. I am much more interested in the substantive policy.

  4. posted by Tom Scharbach on

    Karen Pence is a private citizen. She is free to believe whatever she wants, to work wherever she wants, to say whatever she wants, to do whatever she wants (within the confines of the law), and to live her life according to core Christian principles if that is what she wants to do. She is one among millions of Christians in the United States, and typical of the genre, breaking the mold in no material respects because of her abhorent views about homosexuality.

    Karen Pence is accorded Secret Service protection by law because she is the wife of the Vice President. Her beliefs, work environment, statements, actions and religion are irrelevant in that regard, taxpayer dollars or not.

    Immanuel Christian School is a private institution, entitled teach whatever it wants to teach, to refrain from teaching whatever it does not want to teach, and to promulgate and enforce (within the confines of the law) whatever hiring policies and codes of conduct that it wants to promulgate. Immanuel Christian is one among many thousands of Christian schools in the United States, and typical of the genre, breaking the mold in no material respects because of its policies and codes of conduct with respect to homosexual students and teachers.

    However, having said all of that, I think that it is important to keep in mind the harm Christian culture does to young gays and lesbians and to the other children who are raised in that toxic culture. We need to work to ensure that a counter voice, giving hope to children oppressed and beaten down by Christian culture, is proclaimed, consistently and loudly.

    • posted by Jorge on

      That’s been tried for over 20 years by a number of Christian churches. Without buy-in from the parents I think the chances are low.

    • posted by JohnInCA on

      The outrage over this isn’t about rights though. It’s about propriety.

      • posted by MR Bill on

        This! It’s like Young Sandeman, who said “I had a right to be there.” The problem is, should he have been there?
        Mrs. Pence has a right to associate with whoever. Should the VP’s wife (the Second Lady?) work for an organization that cloaks bias in religion? Certainly not..

Comments are closed.